Thursday, December 20, 2012

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack and a Couple o' Miscellaneous Items

Two takes on one of my favorite tunes... Jackson Browne's original version and a cover by Gregg Allman. Jackson first:

And I had a lover
It's so hard to risk another these days
These days--
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life I have made in song
Well it's just that I've been losing so long

I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
These days--
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten, my friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

And now the former Mr. Cher...It's a given that the original version of any tune is usually the BEST version. I don't think that's the case where "These Days" is concerned, as I'm partial to Mr. Allman's version. His take seems to be so much more soulful than Mr. Browne's version but YMMV, of course. That said, I was most amazed back in the day when I learned that Mr. Browne was only 16 when he wrote the song. Precocious? I guess! I could only WISH it would've been hard for me to risk another lover at the tender age of 16. But that all came home to roost in later years.

Finally... we took Happy Hour on the verandah today even though the temperature was a chilly 49 degrees. But the combination of zero wind and bright, bright sun made sitting outside clad in a black tee shirt and jeans most comfortable... as long as I stayed in the sun. And I did, Gentle Reader, I most certainly DID.

Well, 'the former Mr. Cher' doesn't narrow it down all that much, y'know? I wonder if Sonny did a cover. . .

(Just as a pure aside, I could never decide if I liked James Taylor's 'You've Got a Friend' better, or Carole King's; then I came across the two of them doing a duet. And, I'm partial to Loggins & Messina's 'Danny's Song', but lots of folks have only heard Anne Murray's version. . .)